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Diogenes

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Everything posted by Diogenes

  1. Diogenes
    I figure the idea wasn't that he could cure outside diseases, but that he himself would be immune to them, and by figuring out how to do that they could apply it to other people. Like, either create an immortality serum, test it on the hedgehog, then move on to humans once it was proven to work, or create an immortal hedgehog through other means, then study him and isolate whatever makes it work to create an immortality serum.
  2. Diogenes
    I would certainly say he'd have trouble fighting if he couldn't. She's a 12 year old girl and the biggest point we have in her favor is that she boxercized for a bit in a fighting-based spinoff. I don't think I'm making a radical statement to suggest she's not as physically strong as the ninja or the spy/thief, without even getting into the actual power-type characters.
  3. Diogenes
    I would say it's almost entirely "joke". Or at least, that very little of it is meant to be realistic...which I'd also say for a lot of other things the characters do. Like, Tails tail-slapping robots shouldn't work, if taken seriously; he doesn't actually have such buff ass muscles that he can whip his fluffy appendages hard enough to split metal. It's just...an attack, therefore it does what needs to be done. Basically I don't take Sonic very literally. It's pretty trivial to have a character work out and get a bit stronger. That doesn't mean that they are meaningfully strong. And it's not like you could measure Amy getting stronger from working out. It doesn't just have "toy-like aspects", it is literally a toy. Squeaky toy hammers are a thing. "Piko piko hammer" isn't even something Sonic Team came up with, that's literally just what they're called. That's the joke, yes. No I do apply the same thing to the other characters, but like I said above, I don't take these things literally. Amy can smash robots with her toy hammer, not because she has immense physical strength, but because of the joke of a squeaky hammer wielded by a young girl being effective. Tails can fly not because his intensely powerful ass can spin his tails fast enough to generate sufficient lift, but because his spinning tails evoke a helicopter's blades, and we accept the metaphor. Sonic can spin through robots not because his quills are actually sturdy enough and he can spin just that fast, but because when he's spinning he evokes a buzzsaw. The characters can do the things we see them do, not because they have the physical properties that would be required to perform them in real life, but because they are cartoons, exaggerated fictional characters, often operating on non-literal, symbolic/metaphorical levels.
  4. Diogenes
    I mean even these didn't really give them much of a path forward. SA basically just has Amy circle back around to Sonic from a slightly different angle, with her wanting to get stronger and more independent to impress Sonic. And Tails, he proves himself capable as a hero in his own right, but that doesn't give him any new motivation going forward; if they were ever going to have him truly break out of Sonic's shadow and work independently, there's still a big scary blank space to fill regarding what his business would be.
  5. Diogenes
    Knuckles was designed as an enemy/rival. He has his own business that occasionally intersects with Sonic's. And only occasionally, thus the "why isn't he on Angel Island" half of Knuckles Discourse. On the other hand Tails is all about being Sonic's sidekick and looking up to him, and Amy's is having a crush on him.
  6. Diogenes
    It's a joke. Knuckles is a tough guy, Amy is a dainty girl. For her to overpower him, unintentionally even, is unexpected, thus funny.
  7. Diogenes
    We're all Sonic fans here, we all want to see what's next for the series, but rushing some sneak preview isn't going to do any good. This is not a series or team that we have reason to trust at their word anymore, regardless of good intentions. If they want to reassure people that they can get things back on track, or at least into some workable shape, they're going to need to show us that in game form, not some early build or concept teaser with the promise that it'll be an actual worthwhile game once it's finished. And if they don't have that yet, then they don't have it, and getting worked up isn't going to change it.
  8. Diogenes
    It exploded.
  9. Diogenes
    It's true that what they do with it ultimately matters more than how many times it's been done before, but it's been done to death so hard across all fiction that's come before this that doing it twice in a...what is it, 2-ish years old?...comic series does stick out. MotW is a different matter; it's definitely a well-worn trope but it's one you can still build an entire series around. You can't really build a series around various characters repeatedly getting amnesia. Well, okay, maybe there's a way if you really lean into it, but Sonic is not a series that can do that.
  10. Diogenes
    It's not a direct quote or anything, but some parts are similar to lines in SatBK. Merlina refers to him as being "swift as the wind" when she first summons him, and he says to Percival "I have no master except the wind that blows free". Close enough that I'd guess it's a deliberate reference, thankfully not as on the nose as building a conversation out of song lyrics.
  11. Diogenes
  12. Diogenes

    man i try to be patient and keep a level head about this but even i'm starting to get antsy waiting for some "real" nintendo news.

    a 3rd party mini-direct that's like half rhythm/music games just does not scratch the itch

    1. Chili Dawg

      Chili Dawg

      i hear that. like i cringe a little bit whenever i see someone all "RAH WHAT IS GOING ON AT NINTENDO HOW CAN THEY NOT BE SHOWING ME EVERYTHING" but like... it's been a long time and the horizon is looking pretty empty

    2. Wraith

      Wraith

      Pandemic

    3. Chili Dawg

      Chili Dawg

      yeah i mean the pandemic is the obvious reason why, it's hard to really fault anyone. doesn't make it any easier to be a fan, but hey, less mario games is definitely one of the less serious problems out there these days

  13. Diogenes
    Honestly I try not to think about it too much. I could call some things just gameplay (item boxes, checkpoints), I could call some things real (spikes, loops), but then there are some things I can't really place. Like, springs. Springs have no reason to be in all the places they show up. Developed areas, sure, it's fine to have springs in Spring Yard, but why Green Hill? They're clearly artificial, I can't see them as something naturally occurring in Sonic's world like loops or floating platforms. But since they're really only useful to Sonic (outside of the rare cases where they're traps), I can't buy that Eggman/his robots put them there the way I can with spikes, and there's not really anyone else who could believably be responsible for them. But then they're too "physical" to treat them as purely a gameplay element; they're not serving some symbolic purpose like powerups (Sonic doesn't "really" get temporary extra-fast sneakers, he just finds it in himself to run faster for a bit) or a meta purpose like checkpoints (lives aren't "real", Sonic doesn't "really" die, it's just the game's way of giving you multiple attempts to play out the story of Sonic beating Eggman and saving the world). They're just one of the many things Sonic interacts with as a means of making it through the level; to say it's not really there is like saying conveyor belts and zip lines aren't really there. So I don't know what the fuck a spring is and thinking about it too much gives me a headache.
  14. Diogenes
    I'd argue he's done several things that matter, just that none of them happen to involve him winning a fight or getting what he wants. Raising the question of what to do with Eggman, advancing the fight with Metal Sonic to its final stage, getting zombotted due to his ego, these are all significant matters, they're just not "wins" for him. But he'll get his turn. He's too popular not to.
  15. Diogenes
    Feels like they could've accomplished all the same things in half the pages. Like they didn't have enough actual material to fill the space between the end of the virus and what the next issue will cover so they stretched things out. I like what they did with Knuckles, at least. Both his "get the fuck off my island" attitude and milking his "any minute now" for both comedy and earnest characterization.
  16. Diogenes
    Yes. Granted this is an extreme example; entirely "downhill" level design, effectively no walls, a take on Tails' flight where he only tires if you try to ascend. But I think it clearly shows how dangerous Tails' flight can be if you aren't careful with how it's designed and used. The more freedom and power you give his flight, the less he has to interact with the level and the further he moves away from the other core mechanics of the game. But you also need to be careful when trying to balance it or you end up with Heroes, where flight is so limited and slow that it isn't any fun. It's a small target to hit, and I don't think I've seen anyone, neither Sonic Team nor fans, really dive in and figure out a good solution.
  17. Diogenes

    just finished replaying sticker star. honestly? i can't really call it a good game, but i still had some solid fun with it. its biggest problem is just that it doesn't communicate well, leading to a lot of running around and wasting time. no indication of what thing stickers you need and when, inconsistent indications that you need to paperize and place a sticker or pull something off, hidden blocks that are necessary to progress but have no indication of their existence...it gets to the point where you really ought to play with a guide nearby to save yourself the trouble.

    that and a few other issues aside though, it has its moments. some fun setpieces, some clever puzzles, the battle system's mostly fine. there are worse ways i could've spent my time.

    1. Your Vest Friend

      Your Vest Friend

      Eh, I didn't really like it. Not because it wasn't classic Paper Mario, I just thought it got too boring around the third chapter. That fucking forest, man...

    2. Diogenes

      Diogenes

      yeah the forest is definitely the low point of the game. decent concept but it drags on for far too long and it's got some of the game's most annoying "tricks".

    3. Supah Berry

      Supah Berry

      I have no guilt in playing with a guide Many may nag at Nintendo for being a little too hand-holdy with how it guides players through their recent games, but here it just feels like it slaps your hand down at any moment you'd consider lending it out to it. Putting characterization aside, what makes Kertsi fail as a fairy helper when other Nintendo fairy helpers did right, including her own predecessors and successors: She only provides commentary rather than hints, even when the Zelda fairies get very disruptive when they chime in against your will, they're there for advice when you do need it. Asides from basic tutorials towards the begging, Kerti does not even have that. But she's only one of several other ways SS lacks in pointing you in the right direction, never mind forcing you towards it. 

       

      @Your Vest Friend

      Even when going blind, I was a little savvy about this. I decided to go through the forest before the desert, so I got exposed to the shit show the game gets known for early on. You have to get to the end of the first world to unlock it, but otherwise most backtracking is limited to the forest world itself. There's no EXP to hold me back from going out of order anyway. 

  18. Diogenes
    It's more because he's the villain of the series and behind most of the evil goings-on in the series.
  19. Diogenes
    I don't feel there's much nostalgic appeal to collecting the emeralds/a Super Sonic final boss considering how many games go that way. People fret a bit about them not showing up as much recently, but it's only actually been two games since the last time (and that's if you're not counting Mania) and otherwise it's been the default assumption since 3&K. The idea of them representing unity among the Resistance as opposed to the Phantom Ruby and Infinite as a lone force is a better angle, but I'm not sure if they could pull it off since, again, collecting the emeralds has so often been a default assumption. They'd need some way of expressing the theme to make it different from every other instance of characters collecting the emeralds. And I feel it'd be hard to keep that theme going when the game would presumably end with 3 Super characters (at most) rising above the rest of the Resistance.
  20. Diogenes
    The way I see it, the problem with these "protagonist"-type characters is that they were designed as the centerpiece of one specific story without considering how they'd work in the long term, which became a problem when they proved popular enough to continue using, and they fumbled moving the characters forward. Like I said in the statuses one of the most basic questions you can ask about a character is "what do they want?". That's fairly easy to answer for most other characters; Tails is Sonic's best friend and Sonic is his hero so he wants to help him out and earn/maintain his respect, Amy's got a crush on Sonic so she wants the big blue D senpai to notice her, the Chaotix want to get paid, Big wants to fish with his pal Froggy, etc. These are meant as ongoing motivations for the characters, not problems meant to be solved or, usually, the focal point of a game's story. But with these protagonist-types, their motivation is fundamentally tied to the story of their introductory game, and by concluding the story they also conclude their motivation. And that's fine on its own, bringing a character's personal business to a satisfying conclusion, but it leaves a big fuckin' hole that needs to be filled if you want to bring them back. And that's where things have fallen apart, because their solutions have either been panicked flailing ("Shadow's back...with amnesia! And maybe he's a robot! No wait he's an alien! But now he's thrown away his past so now he's, uh...???") or basically ignoring it and just having the characters show up anyway. So that's the key issue. Whether they'll transition into being supporting characters in some form or continue being more protagonist-like, either can work, but they need to get a proper grasp on who these characters really are, what they want, where they're going. Stuff that should be real basic but, y'know...this series, and all.
  21. Diogenes
    Who's to say places without chaos energy even exist? We know the emeralds can warp spacetime, they're often found in their own weird little pocket dimension, they've shown up in both Sonic's world and the human world, the Black Arms knew about them, and Blaze's dimension has its own equivalent set of emeralds. And considering even the Gaias had some connection to the emeralds it wouldn't be hard to argue that chaos energy is the lifeforce of the planet.
  22. Diogenes
    Been a bit. This one's from a couple months ago; my necromancer character as a Dorohedoro-styled sorcerer. For this version, instead of necromancy, her magic creates muscle/nerve fiber "strings" that she can use to control both living creatures and corpses like puppets. More recently, an attempt at perspective. Had plans to shade it but the urge passed so this is as finished as it's gonna get. A couple sprites I made for yet another game idea I will probably never get around to actually making: Plus a few random sketches I did trying to keep my sanity during a power outage, why not:
  23. Diogenes
    It's not really anything to get worked up about. There's a brief scene that appears to show Earth in the background. Could just as easily be Sonic's world, it's not like there's ever been a fixed, canonical design for it. Plus it's TSR, a goofy racing spinoff; nothing in it matters.
  24. Diogenes
    I mean that much is true but it's also a pretty wide category, I don't think you can say much about tone or style from that alone. I feel like the problem of a lack of payoff isn't really about any specific tone or the bad guys not being intimidating enough. More a lack of style and proper followthrough on whatever kind of story they are telling. Like, I don't need Mario games to sell me on Bowser being some powerful warlord putting the kingdom in danger; I can bust in on his attempted wedding, smack the tuxedo off him with his own goofy punch-hat, then hijack his body to escape a collapsing cavern to a cheesy vocal song, and it's one of the most fun and satisfying climaxes in the series. There's a lot of different ways to sell a conflict.
  25. Diogenes
    It's Blaze, obviously. Strong, cute, secretly an emotional disaster, little fangs, she's got it all.
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